By "most records" I was referring to what shows up in numerous genealogy trees...but each of those could have been started by one inaccurate entry...and then just passed along.
Oh, yes, indeed they could. Online trees can be useful as finding aids, but they cannot be relied on for accuracy.
I have to admit that I have not studied the original records of Gideon Guthrie and his connections, so I cannot really answer your questions. The only material I have on him is the item in Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, which says that he was born in 1663; that his father was Harry Guthrie of Halkerton; that his mother was Margaret Sibbald, daughter of David Sibbald of Kair and his wife Jean, daughter of Sir David Auchmouty; that he married in 1703 Anne Melvin or Melville, daughter of Andrew Melvill or Melvin, minister of Morham; that he had four of a family; and that he died in 1732. The article cites Guthrie's own monograph and Black's
History of Brechin. It also chronicles his ecclesiastical career.
Actually, as Gideon is usually described as an Episcopalian minister, I was a little surprised to see that he features in
Fasti. I would have expected to look for him in Bertie's book on the episcopalian clergy rather than in
Fasti.
There are two records of the marriage of a Gideon Guthrie to an Elspet Black or Blake, one in St Vigeans on 11 August and one in Farnell on 28 August 1683. Whether this is the same person, or another person of the same name, I do not know, but if Hew Scott did not include Elspet B in his biography in Fasti, he either failed to find this marriage, or knew that it was a different person. In any case, you would have thought that if Gideon himself gave family information in his memoir, he could hardly fail to mention a first wife, surely?
This Gideon is presumably the one whose son John was baptised in Monifieth in 1684.
Scotland's People has one baptism of a Gideon Guthrie, in Edinburgh in 1742, son of Hary Guthrie and Rachel Milln. As one of Gideon Guthrie's four children was Harry Guthrie, writer in Edinburgh, there is a high probability this this Gideon is a grandson of Gideon (1663-1732).
Gideon left no will, but there are several documents in the National Archives of Scotland referring to Gideon Guthrie. Inconveniently, some of these are dated 1661 and 1662, which suggests that there might have been yet another Gideon Guthrie. In particular, there is one document described as "Signature of the lands of Halkertoun etc granted to Gideon Guthrie, 1 Jul 1662". As this is a year before Gideon Guthrie (1663-1732) was born, either
Fasti has his date of birth wrong, or (in my view more likely) there was another Gideon Guthrie.
One of the documents, in the Guthrie of Guthrie papers, includes a "Testificate of Gideon Guthrie's attendance at the College of Edinburgh, 1674". If this is Gideon (1663-1732) he must have attended the university at the tender age of 10 or 11. Could it be, however, that this is the Gideon who married Elspet B in 1683?
So many questions, so few answers!
So we have records of at least three, and probably four, different Gideon Guthries.